Kigali: Fire guts tyre shops, police cautions on safety measures

One commercial building and eight shops were gutted in a blaze in Nyarugenge District, the morning of this Thursday. The incident took place in Kigali city, down to new car park, the road from National Statistics to Kigali main Prison.

Many goods were burned: spare parts, printer sets and the office of Kabeza cell was damaged; fortunately, no one was injured in the fire. Police said goods yet to be valued include stationary, motor-vehicle spare parts and food stuffs are among the property destroyed in the fire before the blaze was brought under control by the RNP firefighters.

Testimony from Jean Claude Rukebesha, spare parts owner, the cause might be electrical cables, as “there were only stores, no body stays inside”. This is confirmed by one of the attendants, “That house is old of more than 30 years, built before standards, with old cables”, says one technician. However, the cause has not been determined, the fire is still under investigation, according to Police.

The building belongs to Leonidas Bakundukize, who also has a store of second hand tyres there. The intervention of population and Fire Brigade of Police took around 5 hours, with 6 vehicles to stop fire.

Some goods were saved, according to Jean Claude. “I got out some wheels, batteries and very few tyres. The store had a value of about 30 millions, and unfortunately this had no insurance, as I took it from Nyabugogo shop”.

Rwanda National Police calls upon property owners to take precaution against fire in their buildings and to insure their businesses from fire outbreak. The call is made by ACP Jean Baptiste Seminega, the Commanding Officer of Fire and Rescue Brigade, mentioning that most fire outbreaks can be avoided if basic safety precautions are observed.

“The public should never take fire safety measures lightly since the consequence are always fatal and heavy loses,” he said.

Owners of buildings should acquire and install firefighting gadgets and fire warning devices as well as quality and standard electric installations that can accommodate electric machines used.

Police records indicate that last year, 35 cases of fire outbreaks that took at least five lives, while, ten fire incidents have been recorded, since the beginning of this year, through which one person succumbed to fire burns.

Police calls for timely information with the police fire department through 24/7 phone contacts 111 and 0788311120, for immediate response.